In a dramatic gamble, defendant Yusef Salaam took the witness stand on his own behalf Wednesday to deny that he participated in the gang rape and assault that almost killed an investment banker while she was jogging last year in New York's Central Park. The brutality of the attack on the 29-year-old jogger, who was left to die in a puddle of mud and her own blood, horrified New Yorkers and became a national symbol of urban fear and violence.

Declaring they had turned Central Park into a "torture chamber," a State Supreme Court Justice on Tuesday sentenced three teen-agers to the maximum term of five to 10 years in prison for assaulting and raping a woman jogger. People in New York City have the right to "freedom to walk and to be secure in their homes," said Justice Thomas B. Galligan. The defendants, he added, had shown "no remorse, only defiance."

Jurors shook their heads in disbelief as they viewed for the first time a photo of the female jogger who was raped, beaten and left for dead in Central Park. Jurors at the trial of three youths in state Supreme Court in Manhattan heard the doctor who treated the jogger describe how "it was close to a miracle that she survived" the April 19, 1989, attack. Antron McCray, 16, Raymond Santana, 15, and Yusef Salaam, 16, are being tried on 13 criminal counts, including attempted murder and rape.

After 10 days of painstaking deliberations, a jury late Saturday found three teen-agers guilty of raping and assaulting a Central Park jogger in a case that added the terrifying word wilding to the national vocabulary of violence. The jury of 10 men and two women found Yusef Salaam and Antron McCray, both 16, and Raymond Santana, 15, guilty of rape and assault on the investment banker as she jogged in the park in April, 1989.

The woman known as the Central Park jogger--scarred, shaky of gait but steady of speech--made her first public appearance Monday, taking the witness stand to testify against three teen-agers accused of raping and attempting to murder her during a rampage that added the word "wilding" to the national vocabulary of violence. The 30-year-old investment banker used one hand to balance herself when she walked unsteadily up steps to the witness stand.

After 10 days of painstaking deliberations, a jury late Saturday found three teen-agers guilty of raping and assaulting a Central Park jogger in a case that added the terrifying word wilding to the national vocabulary of violence. The jury of 10 men and two women found Yusef Salaam and Antron McCray, both 16, and Raymond Santana, 15, guilty of rape and assault on the investment banker as she jogged in the park in April, 1989.

A police officer testified Monday about arresting two youths charged with beating and raping a jogger and leaving her for dead in Central Park, describing how he confronted a pack of teen-agers stalking through the park after the attack. Under questioning in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Officer Eric Reynolds told how he was patrolling a moonlit Central Park on April 19, 1989, in an unmarked van after a number of reports had come over his police radio about attacks by gangs of youths.

Defense lawyers in closing arguments Tuesday tried to convince jurors in the Central Park jogger trial that no testimony or physical evidence existed directly linking their three teen-age clients to the rape and attempted murder of a 29-year-old investment banker. One lawyer suggested that the jogger, who suffers from amnesia after the trauma of the attack last year, never was raped at all and could have had a sexual liaison before entering Central Park.

As three teen-age defendants sat stone-faced, a prosecutor charged Monday they were part of the gang that assaulted, raped and left for dead a woman jogger in Central Park during a night of random violence that shocked the nation a year ago. Assistant Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Lederer told the jury of 10 men and two women that Yusef Salaam, 16, one of the defendants, allegedly confessed to detectives hours later: "It was fun."

Declaring they had turned Central Park into a "torture chamber," a State Supreme Court Justice on Tuesday sentenced three teen-agers to the maximum term of five to 10 years in prison for assaulting and raping a woman jogger. People in New York City have the right to "freedom to walk and to be secure in their homes," said Justice Thomas B. Galligan. The defendants, he added, had shown "no remorse, only defiance."

Defense lawyers in closing arguments Tuesday tried to convince jurors in the Central Park jogger trial that no testimony or physical evidence existed directly linking their three teen-age clients to the rape and attempted murder of a 29-year-old investment banker. One lawyer suggested that the jogger, who suffers from amnesia after the trauma of the attack last year, never was raped at all and could have had a sexual liaison before entering Central Park.

In a dramatic gamble, defendant Yusef Salaam took the witness stand on his own behalf Wednesday to deny that he participated in the gang rape and assault that almost killed an investment banker while she was jogging last year in New York's Central Park. The brutality of the attack on the 29-year-old jogger, who was left to die in a puddle of mud and her own blood, horrified New Yorkers and became a national symbol of urban fear and violence.

The woman known as the Central Park jogger--scarred, shaky of gait but steady of speech--made her first public appearance Monday, taking the witness stand to testify against three teen-agers accused of raping and attempting to murder her during a rampage that added the word "wilding" to the national vocabulary of violence. The 30-year-old investment banker used one hand to balance herself when she walked unsteadily up steps to the witness stand.

Jurors shook their heads in disbelief as they viewed for the first time a photo of the female jogger who was raped, beaten and left for dead in Central Park. Jurors at the trial of three youths in state Supreme Court in Manhattan heard the doctor who treated the jogger describe how "it was close to a miracle that she survived" the April 19, 1989, attack. Antron McCray, 16, Raymond Santana, 15, and Yusef Salaam, 16, are being tried on 13 criminal counts, including attempted murder and rape.

A police officer testified Monday about arresting two youths charged with beating and raping a jogger and leaving her for dead in Central Park, describing how he confronted a pack of teen-agers stalking through the park after the attack. Under questioning in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Officer Eric Reynolds told how he was patrolling a moonlit Central Park on April 19, 1989, in an unmarked van after a number of reports had come over his police radio about attacks by gangs of youths.

As three teen-age defendants sat stone-faced, a prosecutor charged Monday they were part of the gang that assaulted, raped and left for dead a woman jogger in Central Park during a night of random violence that shocked the nation a year ago. Assistant Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Lederer told the jury of 10 men and two women that Yusef Salaam, 16, one of the defendants, allegedly confessed to detectives hours later: "It was fun."

In its sixth day of deliberations, the jury in the Central Park jogger trial reheard testimony from several victims about the time each was attacked by a gang of teens April 19, 1989. Prosecutors' approximate time of attack on a female jogger who was beaten, raped and left for dead would make her the fifth of nine victims. Antron McCray, 16, Yusef Salaam, 16, and Raymond Santana, 15, are accused of being among the youths who rampaged in the park.

A jury in its eighth day of deliberations heard doctors and two of three youths on trial describe how a female jogger was nearly beaten to death during a gang rape in Central Park last year. Descriptions of her critical injuries and the gruesome way they were inflicted were contained in testimony read back at the request of the jury trying to reach a verdict on the attempted murder count.